By Paulo Sotero Paulo Sotero is the Washington correspondent for the Brazilian newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo.

May 11, 2010

Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva heads to Tehran this week, a sort of victory lap for what he hopes will be a monumental piece of foreign policy: bringing Iran’s leadership to the nuclear negotiating table. Last week, Tehran agreed "in principle" to Brazil and Turkey’s offer to facilitate talks on an agreement proposed by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) last October. Should that initiative succeed, it will surely be remembered as Lula’s crowning achievement.

But many are beginning to wonder if Lula can truly be the darling of the West while also wooing the East. Lula’s administration has pitched the talks to Iran not as a way to come clean but as a way to prove that it is hiding nothing with its peaceful nuclear program — and the United States and Europe are understandably skeptical. Back home, questions have arisen about the Brazilian leader’s motivation for injecting himself and his country in such a daring initiative in the first place. It’s certainly not about domestic politics; if anything, cozying up to Iran is losing Lula points at home.